What is Exchange Server SE and how is it licensed?
Last reviewed by the MSLicenseHub Licensing Desk.
Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) is the successor to Exchange Server 2019, released in 2025. Functionally it is an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2019 CU14 with no schema change — the same servers, the same admin model.
The licensing model is the change. SE moves Exchange from perpetual + CAL to a subscription: you pay annually per server and per CAL, with continuous updates as long as the subscription is active. There is no "perpetual" SE — Microsoft is consolidating on subscriptions for on-prem server products, starting with Exchange.
#exchange server#exchange se#subscription edition
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